PLAS concentrator Alissa Escarce ’11 has been awarded the University’s Henry Richardson Labouisse ’26 Prize, which will allow her to devote a year of service and research related to migrant workers’ rights.

The Labouisse fellowship provides $25,000 to each recipient to support research in developing countries by graduating seniors who intend to pursue a career devoted to problems of development and modernization. The prize was established in 1984.

Escarce, a history major pursuing a certificate in Latin American studies, will spend the year in Mexico working with Centro de los Derechos del Migrante (CDM), a transnational workers’ rights law center. She will help expand the capacity of a new CDM office in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca by assisting with research on legal cases, preparing educational materials for outreach efforts, including workshops and a radio show, and performing administrative duties. Escarce also will document the effects of the United States’ H-2 temporary visas on Oaxaca’s indigenous Mixtec community, in part through interviews with local organizers, workers and their families.

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Dear Program in Latin American Studies,

As a rising junior in the anthropology department, I was able to do an internship in Rio de Janeiro with the Fulbright Commission/Education USA because of PLAS’ gracious funding towards my expenses to travel there. This internship completely changed my mind about study abroad and widened the scope of my intellectual interests at Princeton. I want to personally thank the PLAS for giving me this opportunity and allowing me to have this wonderful experience.

I chose this particular internship because I have always been interested in education and education policy, especially associated with underprivileged students in urban environments. I am also getting a certificate in the Latin American Studies department and my academic interests have included many topics in Latin America. This particular internship seemed to fit not only my academic interests but also many passions I have for my future goals. The Fulbright Commission serves as a type of college counseling for Brazilian students who wish to study in the U.S. As an intern for them, I had many projects assigned to me ranging from basic office work to researching educational programs and providing advice from my experience from attending a university in the U.S.

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